Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, –considered today as one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature– died on february 17, 1673.
One of the most famous moments in his life was his last.
Molière suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis possibly contracted when he was imprisoned for debt as a young man. In february 1673, while seriously ill and aged 51, he had premiered in a new play at his Théâtre du Palais-Royal. It was a joyous comedy with Molière as the title character, ironically about a severe hypochondriac fearing death, and named Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid).
A week later during the fourth performance, surrounded by whirling figures in outlandish doctors’ costumes, welcoming him into their brotherhood with a mock initiation ceremony, Molière collapsed on stage in a fit of coughing and hemorrhaging. He was so weak that his wife and friend Baron united in urging him to stop the performance. He refused and insisted on completing it. Afterwards he collapsed a second time with another larger bleeding and almost suffocated on stage, but the curtain finally went down. He was quickly taken home and died shortly later in his bed on 17 February 1673. Priests refused to take his confession, for actors had no social standing and had been excommunicated by the church. Nor would they permit him to be buried in holy ground. But the King Louis XIV interceded and he was finally buried under the cover of darkness.
Molière is listed as the first entertainer to have died during a performance.
The superstition that green brings bad luck to stage actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing in this play.
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